Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

I have been really busy this weekend. The weekend started with the end of school on Friday evening. Didn't really like the program that was organised for us. Some of the acts were related to school and teachers and I didn't know over half of the teachers they were talking about. Then we had one hour to spend and I was talking to some of the other IB1s. Then we had church, were I talked to some of my friends from compulsory school. That ended this school term. The next one starts 7.1. 

Then yesterday was super busy and I was exhausted at the end of the day. First we went to spinning, a great way to start the day. After that back home, shower, eat and leave. We went to clean our flee market table and to the grocery store to do the Christmas shopping. There were quite a lot of people and I can imagine how it will be tomorrow. Then back home and cleaning. Vacuuming, mopping etc. After that was time to go a deliver Christmas cards to people who live relatively close to us. Then back home and to prepare dinner. After dinner we watched a movie and I was sleeping by 22.30 already. So I was too tired to do a post yesterday.

Today I have spent time finalizing Christmas presents and preparing dessert. Dessert will be this year a mango sorbet. I have never before done a sorbet and it seemed quite easy. We'll see how it tastes in 2 days. 

Tomorrow is going to be all about Christmas preparations. BTW if it's unclear to someone in Finland we spend celebrate Christmas on the eve (24th). Now to watch a movie from TV and enjoy the fact that I can sleep in tomorrow. 

- Anniina 

I talk quite much here about going to the gym and different classes I go to there. So now I'll explain a bit on those classes and what are they like.

Dance classes!

There are 4 different classes where I go, one of which regularly each week. My favorite is definitely Sh'Bam45 it's a Les Mills concept class. It lasts only 45 minutes and has a lot of the music that is playing on the radio and ranking high on lists. The dance moves are not too latino for me. I really like latino dances, but not so much that I would spend 45 minutes just dancing them. The choreography is super simple in this class and it's really easy to learn after a few times.

Then to the other Les Mills concept class BodyJam. Definitely more difficult choreography and physically exhausting than Sh'Bam. Based a lot on street dances, which is a big plus for this dance. The music is really good, even though it's not the top chart music. This reminds me more of the dance classes I used to go before, since there are only a few choreographies that are practiced during the class. The only problem is that the classes are in a not ideal time for me.

Then another choreographed class that is not Les Mills, Just Dance, the most technical class in my opinion. The instructor does their own choreography. Also timing isn't that good, so I have only gone a few times, but really liked it then.

Then to my least favorite class Zumba. I really don't like the music that is usually played during the classes and the choreographies aren't that good.

Spinning classes!

Or indoor cycling, it's not spinning around like a friend once understood it. There are  two different type of classes the Les Mills concept class RPM and then the normal spinning/cycling. There are 3 different levels and I have gone to the 2 easier ones. RPM is more faster and the music is sometimes better. The advantage is that even with different instructors you know what is coming up. The normal cycling classes depend a lot on the instructor and their taste in music etc. Some of the normal classes are better since the music fits the speed whilst it's not always the case in RPM. A really nice work out for the body (except for arms).

Other classes!

As can be understood from the other classes mentioned above I don't get almost any work out for my arms. To fix this I have started to go to BodyPump, which is basically one hour of wait lifting. It's good that I go here, 'cause in the gym I woudn't know what to do and I wouldn't work on one body part for 5-6 minutes. I'm always exhausted after this class as well as spinning. Now that I have gone 3 times I already remember how the movements are done so it's easier after each time and the technique also improves.

Yoga, gone twice and not that much to say about it. It feels like stretching for me. I also sometimes go to stretching classes.

These are the ones I go usually to and then sometimes to something else. I'll write on my experiences after trying out new things.  

Winter Break Finally!

ALMOST! No classes for a couple of weeks, still a Christmas show and church in the evening today and then officially it's BREAK! We have a midnight church so that it goes a couple of minutes past midnight so that we can claim tomorrow as a school day. I really like this 'cause I still get to have a normal Saturday. We are together in the church with Madetojan musiikkilukio (music high school) at least. 

Christmas is being prepared all the time. Yesterday we organized the whole house, today mom bought the ham, tomorrow we'll clean and then on Monday food preparation begins. At the moment I am listening to Spotify Top tracks in Norway and I like how many Christmas songs there are on the list. 

It has been snowing non-stop for over a day now. It's so nice and looks more like Christmas is here in 4 days time. 

Then to my break plans. Resting, working with school and being outdoors. I have a few things to do for school and then I need to catch up with History, not a ton but still some. Finish Dan Brown's Inferno. I started it when I was still in Norway, but then school took all my time and I haven't read it for a few months now. Continue reading Why Nations Fail. A really interesting book with a lot of different case studies. Skiing and down-hill skiing, snowboarding, going to the gym, eating good food and enjoying the time. 

- Anniina 

p.s. I'll post today also somethings that I didn't have time for before

Flickr doesn't want to upload photos today, so you'll get some tomorrow. We baked ginger breads today and it's always so energy consuming, but totally worth it when you get to eat them. We make the doe from the begging, so it was started already yesterday. Today I also went to the hair dresser and have a bit shorter hair now. 

I'll post more tomorrow, now it's time for bed. 

- Super tired Anniina 

Monsters University - amazing movie

Yesterday me and my dad went to the movie rental and rented 2 movies for the weekend. We watched the first one yesterday and it was Monsters University. I loved the first part when I was a child and still love it. It's probably my favorite children's movie. That's the reason why we rented this one. The movie is amazing. The quality has increased so much from the release of the first one. Even though it's a children's movie it has a nice story anyone can relate to. A story of becoming best friends and friendship in general. Something that could be seen from the movie is the idea of believing in yourself and that winning against the odds is possible.  I really rarely watch animations but it was definitely worth renting. Today's movie is completely different it's World War Z.

Kirppis / Flee market

I have been waiting for a table from the local flee market for over 2 months now. I knew it would take sometime since they told me that the waiting time is 1-2 months. Usually it's been half of what they have said. This time it was 2 months. So yesterday I got a text message that there is a table available. Of course we accepted it and when coming from the gym I went and signed the contract and bought price tags. This time we are selling books in English, winter clothes, old skiing/skating/downhill equipment and a chair. Well at least I have something to do during Christmas break now. 

I would never by something from a flee market. The idea of wearing someones used clothes etc. doesn't appeal to me. I still think that it is a good way of getting rid of old stuff. Usually what we don't sell we donate to charity. If something doesn't fit me anymore or if I won't read a book for the second or third time doesn't mean that it's garbage. It can be perfectly fine for someone else. 

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Oon odottanu kirppispöytää paikalliselta paljekirppikseltä 2 kuukautta. Tiesin, että jonkin aikaa menee, sillä odotusajaksi minulle sanottiin 1-2 kuukautta, mutta yleensä pöydän on saanut noin puolessa ajassa siitä mitä on sanottu. Eilen sain sitten vihdoin viestin, jossa kerrottiin pöydän vapautumisesta ja totta kai otimme sen. Salilta tullessa eilen kävin tekemässä sopimuksen ja ostamassa hintalappuja. Nyt siellä on myynnissä englanninkielisiä kirjoja, talvivaatteita, vanhoja monoja, pyöräilykenkiä ja luistimet tuolikin sieltä pöydästä löytyy. Ainakin on nytten tekemistä loman ajaksi. 

Itse en ikinä ostaisi mitään kirppikseltä. Ajatus siitä, että pitäisin tuntemattomien käytettyjä vaatteita ei houkuttele minua. Mielestäni kirppiksellä myynti on silti hyvä tapa päästä vanhoista tavaroista eroon. Yleensä vaatteet, joita emme myy menevät Pelastusarmeijalle tai punaiselle ristille  yms. Jos jokin vaate ei enää mahdu minulle tai en tule lukemaan kirjaa toista tai kolmatta kertaa ei tarkoita sitä että se olisi roska. Se voi olla täydellinen jollekin muulle.

- Anniina 

Talven aistit

Kuulen ritinän, ratinan jään.

Näen lumihiutaleen valkean. 

Tuoksu glögin ja pipareiden.

Maku kotoinen.

Tunnen lämpöisen peiton. 

Talvessa ja etenkin joulussa on jokaiselle aistille, jotain nauttittavaa ja erilaista. Ylhäällä olen kirjoittanut minulle talveen ja jouluun liittyviä aistihavaintoja. Monia muitakin on, mutta nämä tulivat ensimmäisenä mieleeni tänään. 

Tällä hetkellä on ihana kuulla ulkona taas jään ratinaa ja ritinää, kun kävelee, sillä viimeisten päivien + asteiden jälkeen on ihanaa ku on taas pakkasta ja ulkona on kirkasta. Aamulla mennessä kouluun, näkyi vielä tähtiä taivaalla. 

Lumihiutaleet ja lumi tekee jouluisen ja kodikkaan tunnelman. Joulu ei ole samanlainen ilman lunta. 

Pipareiden ja glögin tuoksu tuo minulle mieleen joulun. Meillä ei ole ollut oikeaa joulukuusta kohta 11 vuoteen, joten se ei tuo minulle joulua. 

Maku kotoinen. Tällä tarkoitan kaikkea sitä mitä meillä on aina jouluna. Joulupöydässä on aina graaviakalaa, perunoita, sienisalaattia, rosollia, kinkkua, lasimestarinsilliä, porkkana-, lanttu ja maksalaatikkoa. Kaikki itse tehtyä. Siksi maku kotoinen.

Tunnen lämpöisen peiton, viittaa siihen kuinka kaikkien joulukiireiden jälkeen on joulupäivänä ihana vaan olla ja öllöttää joko sängyssä lukien ihanaa kirjaa tai sitten sohvalla katsoen elokuvaa. Jouluna saa vain olla ja öllöttää ei tarvitse työskennellä tai opiskella.

Some old photos have been in the blog before, but I thought that they would fit the content of the post.

- Anniina 

p.s. Next post will be again in English, this one just made more sense in Finnish. 

Presents, presents and presents for Christmas!

I have shopped and packed all the Christmas presents and they are now under the tree waiting for Christmas eve.

As in a comment I was asked to talk about what makes Christmas Christmas for me. It's the atmosphere and all the preparations for Christmas. There needs to be snow so that there is a Christmas feeling. I have experienced Christmas twice without snow and it wasn't the same. I love to make these ice lanterns and for that there also needs to be a nice frost outside. Candles, Christmas music, relatives around me, the smell of glogg, Christmas foods awaiting... Christmas is also the time to dress up and wear nice and comfortable clothes. I couldn't imagine a Christmas wearing sweat pants. That is Christmas for me.  Christmas day is the same, but just for relaxing and spending time inside reading a good book or watching movies and eating all the left over food from yesterday.

- Anniina

Politics - where to get it from

For the past 3-4 years I have been interested on social and political issues and followed all the political debates, interviews, current affairs programs etc. Now I feel that it's not enough. I want to discuss these issues. At RCN I had the opportunity to study Global Politics in class and discuss topics with friends and follow World Today debates. Here the political life is quite non-existing for me. We don't have a politics program at the university so there aren't any open lectures etc.

I realized that I should probably join some party or discussion group, where I could express my ideas freely and find new ways of approaching issues. But my problem is which party. I know for sure that I couldn't ever be a member of some parties like our populist party PerusSuomalaiset (TrueFinns) or Kristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats). My opinions differ too much with these parties. I guess I am somewhere between Kokoomus (National Coalition, like Høyre in Norway) and Vihreät (The Green League). Both of these parties have happenings in my town. 

Due to the party problem a discussion group with be the best option for me at the moment. If anyone from Oulu knows any political discussion groups or groups that work with Human Rights issues etc. please comment on this.

- Anniina

9: Individuals and Societies

Back to the IB-related posts!

Now we are getting to the core of why I love the IB! The social sciences and how much is taught in them. Everyone who knows we knows, that I am the social sciences person who hates the natural sciences. The IB offers a wide variety of social sciences such as politics, global politics, history, economics, psychology, business and management, geography, world religions, philosophy etc. those are some of the most common ones.

I have experience (or will have) from 3 different subjects and those are economics, global politics and history.

ECONOMICS: Is a great subject. You learn a lot and it's definitely something I couldn't have studied outside the IB before university level. We have 4 different parts and they are studied in the following order; Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, International economics and Development economics. Micro deals with single markets and Macro with whole economies. I haven't studied the others yet at all. What I did of Macro, I liked it much more that Micro. I just think that Micro is extremely boring except for the government interventions, market types and market failures. When studying HL (like me) in the finals there is a Paper 3 that is pure mathematics within economics. It's calculations and making exact diagrams.

GLOBAL POLITICS: As a subject I enjoyed it, but as a class didn't. I have strong political opinions on issues that are largely in the news in Finland, so mostly domestic and European. We didn't talk anything about Europe! Everything was Middle-East vs. US. Finland is not apart of NATO, so we are not effected that much by the Syrian civil war, the intervention in Libya, the war in Afghanistan or Pakistan... Many of the people in my classes were from countries where these were talked about much more and therefore knew much more about them and could talk much more. Due to this class I started reading CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera almost everyday and still continue to do it even though I don't need to study it for school. Choosing Global Politics definitely made me understand that I do care about our society and how the world is run at the moment. Therefore hopefully in 2 years time I will be in some university and studying something related to politics.

HISTORY: I haven't had a single class of this subject yet, but I have been catching up with what has already been done. I really like it. It's like politics, but you know the outcome already. More will come later in February when I have actually studied it for sometime.

- Anniina

p.s. This is my 100th post in this blog. Never thought that I would write so much here,

7 & 8 : Double post on Christmas time

I didn't post yesterday, because I was so tired of making 20 Christmas cards and knitting a sock for most of the day. At least I got a lot of CAS-hours and our relatives and friends will get nice Christmas Cards. I'll post pictures later. 

On Friday I spent the day snowboarding and downhill skiing. After a year's break I went snowboarding and became exhausted. Also it got dark and I couldn't see the bumps in the hill with my awesome helmet on, so I changed to my skies and continued for some 2 hours. Super fun! Then we got home, made food, ate and the rest of the evening we where watching the presidential independence day celebration. The concept of the celebration was  a little different this year with a concert and literary extracts from Finnish literature. The idea of the concert was much nicer then the usual ball. 

Then yesterday was just making Christmas cards and knitting a sock at the same time as we watched Plan-fundraising gala. All of these charities have wonderful causes and ways of fundraising. But I feel that there have been too many different galas televised in the past month. Yesterday I stayed inside for the whole day since there was about -20 degrees outside. 

Today morning when I woke up the first thing I heard was that there is -27 degrees outside. YAY! Another day spent inside then. We ate breakfast and then packed our things up and left home. After coming home I have been studying chemistry and economics and my parents have built our Christmas tree, feels more like December and Christmas time now. 

Tomorrow I'll have a long day ahead, school from 8-16 and then after that several hours of my service activity and coming back home after 8 p.m. 

Now I'll write a few posts ahead so that not posting wouldn't happen again. 

- Anniina   

6: Independence Day // Itsenäisyyspäivä

Today's post will be in Finnish, since it is the 96th Independence Day of Finland. Non-Finnish speakers can use the translate tool.

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää Suomi!

Itsenäisyyspäivän kunniaksi kirjoitan tämän postauksen suomeksi.

Olen tällä hetkellä mökillä ja tämän päivän suunnitelmissa on laskettelua/lumilautailua, joulukorttien askartelua ja oleskelua.

Blogi on samalla tuulella, kuin minä eli laiska tänää, joten en kirjoittele sen enempää. Huomenna sitten taas enemmän tekstiä luvassa.

 Anniina 

5: Language B and ab initio

We need to study another language besides our first language. Here I have 2 first languages and no language B or ab initio. The opportunities would have been Swedish B SL and French ab initio SL. At RCN I studied in the beginning Chinese and then changed to Norwegian.

Ab initio languages are from the beginning. First you learn how to count and how to introduce yourself. B languages on the other hand are meant for students who have studied the language for about 3 years at least. Here many students have English B and that was my original choice during Pre-DP. When going to RCN I knew that I didn't want to study self-taught Finnish and therefore took English A. Now after doing English A for over a year listening to what B does is super boring...

I really miss studying Norwegian. I looked up Norwegian courses in my town and there are none. So I guess the next opportunity to study it is in university.

This is not as interesting as the other subjects and therefore this was a super short post today.

- Anniina 

4: Language A

Language A is the language you speak the best, within the IB language subject. The group has purely literature subjects, language and literature subjects and language and performance. Literature and language and literature are the most often offered subjects. I am studying both. I have Finnish Literature and English Language and Literature (I usually refer to Lang&Lit in this blog).

I took Lang&Lit at RCN also. The subject of course has the same themes and subjects here and there, but at least in my opinion the speeches and news articles we look at here are better and more interesting. Political speeches, news articles and articles about how culture affects us are among the topics we have looked at. The language part is divided in 2 different parts and the literature part is also divided into 2 parts.
The language parts are language in a cultural context and Mass Media. 
We are now done with the the first part and we had our Further Oral Activity presentations. I analysed Kennedy's inaugural address and did well. The Further Oral Activity is a part of the Internal Assessment for Lang&Lit. Later this school year and next year we will study literature.

I wanted to originally take Swedish B instead of Finnish Literature, but I wouldn't have had enough Higher Levels then. Finnish Literature has been nice for the first part. We have read 3 books now. We did part 4: Literature and Film and read The Great Gatsby, The memoirs of a Geisha and P.S. I love you. Next we will read 3 books for world literature (part 1). I can't really say anything else about Finnish Literature since I've only had it for a bit over a month.

- Anniina

p.s. 20 days til Christmas!

3: IB - introduction to the introduction to the IB

I will be writing a series of posts on the subjects I study or studied in the IB. I talk a lot about my school work here, but the majority of you probably don't know what I'm talking about if you are not an IB student. IB is it's own world, a secret world you don't know unless you lived it.

The IB makes students to take subjects from 5 or 6 different groups. These groups are called Language A, Language B, Individuals and societies, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Arts (or another subject). Then we have Creativity, Activity and Service hours we need to do outside school. Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is a subject about "how do we know what we know". Then there is also the Extended Essay- monster.

Then we need to do internal assessments for the IB in all subjects. The internal assessments are graded my our teachers and then some of our work will be sent to the IB with the grades and they grade our teachers. So all the grades might go up, stay the same or go down by a few points.

At the end of two years we do the final exams. We have for all Standard Level Subjects 2 papers and 3 for Higher Level. All papers are from 45 min to about 3 hours. So the IB has a much harder time limit than the national program in Finland.

In the next posts I'll talk about the different groups and my subjects both here and those that I had in RCN.

- Anniina

21 days left til Christmas! And I left RCN 2 months ago... Miss you all 

2: Christmas preparation traditions in my family

Christmas preparation starts in my family on Independence Day 6.12.2013. Then we usually bake the first ginger breads and build our Christmas tree. Yes, we build our Christmas tree. We have had a plastic Christmas tree since we lived in the US. It's so much nicer than a real one. We don't have the needles and the tree is thick and nice. The only thing that is missing are the needles. 

After Independence day we can bake and eat Christmas pastries as much as we want, which is usually a lot. Usually around Independence Day me and my mom make our Christmas cards and send them out at the last minute so that they still reach homes before 24th of December. 

We usually do not really decorate the house a lot and the outdoor lights are forgotten/left for months. 

Then it's already the 23rd and we go to the grocery store that and buy all the Christmas groceries. We start to prepare the food on the 23rd and then on the 24th finish everything. In the afternoon around 16:30 usually me and my dad get my grandparents and they come and eat the Christmas Meal. After they have left it's time to open the presents. 

I'll do a new post on the Christmas Foods, later on. Remember to check the blog for a new calender entry every day!

- Anniina 

Christmas Calender? What is this?

To make this blog more active I'll start a Christmas Calender project. The idea is that I will post a new post on something related to my life everyday until 24th of December. I've planned the calendar, but a few days are still without topics so suggestions are welcome! I got this idea from last year that my friend did in her blog with a slightly different idea of introducing.other blogs.

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Aattelin tehdä tälläisen joulukalenterin, jotta blogista tulisi hieman aktiivisempi. Ideana siis on että kirjoitan yhden postauksen päivässä asioista, jotka liittyvät minuun jollain tavalla jouluaattoon asti. Idean tähän sain viime vuonna kaveriltani, joka teki viime vuonna joulukalenterin, jossa hän esitteli toisia blogeja.
  

POST topics - COMMENT!

A blogger's crisis going on here.

After coming back home to Finland not as much interesting things are happening in my life. This means that I don't have as much to report here. I'll start doing posts in different categories. Now I need your ideas, what do you want me to write about. It can be anything; UWC, IB, Politics, Knitting, Cooking, Culture etc. Name it and I'll try to write on my opinions on the issues and give some info that I might know about it.

- Anniina

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Bloggerin kriisi menossa täällä.

Kotiinpaluun jälkeen elämässäni ei ole tapahtunut kovinkaan paljon mitään kiinnostavaa. Tämähän siis tarkoittaa, että tänne on vähemmän raportoitavaa. Alan tekemään postauksia eri kategorioissa. Nyt tartten teiltä ideoita, mistä haluatte kuulla minun kirjoittavan. Se voi olla mitä tahansa; UWC, IB, Politiikka, neulominen, ruuan laitto, kulttuuri jne. Sano ja yritän kirjoittaa mielipiteeni asiasta ja kertoa jotain tietoa asiasta jota saatan tietää asiasta.

- Anniina 

Heart of a Lion - movie

As said in the last post I watched this movie Leijonasydän ( Heart of a Lion). If you haven't seen the movie or don't know what is it about, the trailer with English subtitles is available at the end of this post.

The basic plot is that a neo-Nazi, Teppo, falls in love with a women, Sari, who has a  dark-skinned son from her previous marriage. This leads to a inner battle within Teppo to be with Sari or to continue with the Neo-Nazis. His inner battle changes at the end to a battle with him and his fellow Neo-Nazis whose leader he is. At the end he starts calling Rhamadhani his son and defending him and leaves/is forced to leave the Neo-Nazis.

This is once again a movie that I wouldn't say was pleasant to watch, but still it was extremely good and thought provoking. I'll write another post of these thoughts. The movie has a lot of violence and the violence is more cruel than in splatter movies etc. The violence is beating and kicking etc. Everything looks very real and that is the frightening part of it.

Another Finnish Movie that made me think as much and created similar emotions is Arto Halonen's Prinsessa (Princess), that tells the true story of Anna Lappalainen. Lappalainen is a cabaree dancer, who thinks she is a princess and is sent to Kellokoski Mental Hospital. This movie touched upon issues such as what is ethical medical treatment with using treatments such as shock therapy and lobotomy.

The differences with these movies was that in Princess there was humor also incorporated into to the movie, where as there wasn't any single scene in Heart of a Lion that made me be on a positive mood or laugh.

I'm not a huge fan of Finnish movies, since they have the weird Finnish humor. I don't even usually understand the humor and I am Finnish and have lived here for 15 years of my life. These movies didn't have this weird Finnish humor that has twisted relationships, alcoholism etc. And where there was a little of it, it had a purpose.

Friends, Movies and having a good time!

Since my last post I have studied less and enjoyed life more. Some of my friends received their final exam grades and all of them did extremely well. Congrats to all of you who have graduated or received final grades. In the Finnish system you can do your finals in three parts. So many start them 1½ years before gradating. Getting together with my friends was nice since I hadn't seen them since I came back home and I also met some new people. It was the first time since coming back that I didn't receive a panic/ anxiety attack or felt uncomfortable when in a new situation with almost all strangers to me. 

Today morning I studied chemistry and I only have about 10 new pages to study. Then just some review calculations for Thursday's exam. Weird doing an exam/test without going to any classes. Thank God I still remember something from Pre-DP and compulsory school. 

In the afternoon I went to the movies with my mom. We watched Leijonasydän (LionHeart, the lion is related to Finland). The movie made me think of many things and I 'll do a separate post of the movie and my opinions relating to it and it's themes. 

Tomorrow I'll need to study, do my English FOA (presentation that counts for my final grade). Finish Chemistry and look at econ (if I have time for it.). Go to Zumba and skype to Norway at least once. And probably write a few posts and publish them during exam week. So the next update might come in the beginning of December if I don't have time earlier. Posts on my opinions on different things will be published more frequently. 

- Anniina 

My (new) room!

As said in yesterday's blog post, my room has been rearranged and a wall has been painted. Everything lasted about 3 weeks as we first painted the wall, and rearranged the furniture. The tall cupboards, bookshelf and bed stayed in the same places and the table and counter-tops changed places. Two new chairs were bought and shelves above the table. I also got the tall lamp next to the chair from my grand-parent's. It's old, my mom had it when she was a student so about 30 years at least.

So yesterday we finally got the chair and today with the help of my grandpa we put it together and now my room is complete, with one lamp still missing. My room is now actually a cozy and nice place to be in. It invites me to study and also spend time.

Father's Day cake, souvenirs from Rome etc.

Last Sunday was father's day in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Iceland. In our case we already celebrated on Saturday, since my dad traveled for work on Sunday. Our celebrations were small this year. We had  cake that I baked with my mom and decorated alone (mostly).

I was home alone for the last week, when my parent's traveled to Rome and I got souvenirs/presents when they came back. A new jacket, slippers, a nomination piece and Italian chocolate. I wished for food things, like oil etc. but the stupid airline regulations make it difficult to bring it to Finland. One could have it in the check-in luggage, but really nice if all the oil would be spread on your clothes.

This week has been really chill. Monday I had Finnish and English class and today Economics. This school life is so chill with only HL's. I got a supervisor for my EE and can keep the old one. YAY! Made my day to hear that. Yesterday my day was made by a postcard I received from Berlin, from Jenny. The card is now on a door in a my room, where I collect cards.




My room has been re-arranged from what it used to be and a wall has been painted. I also got new shelves and 2 new chairs. Everything should finally be finished tomorrow so pictures will come then. Sneak peek on the wall color can be seen from the slipper picture.

Today still to Sh'Bam45 class. It's become one of my favorite classes in Hukka (the gym, I belong to). Dance classes are the best in my opinion, due to good music, nice moves and it doesn't feel like working out. It feels like working out after the workout and still my heart rate is up and calories are burning.

Till tomorrow!
- Anniina

5.11.2013

Today I had econ and TOK. Nothing special happened in school.

After school I skyped for the first time to my firstie in Norway, since they have their November Break now.

I've been home alone for 2 days now and it's normal. Like living at RCN but alone in a 3 story house.

After skyping I went to get a influenza vaccination. I get it for free like anyone with a chronic disease like Diabetes or Asthma etc. Also people over 65 get it.

Then my day continued with 2 hours of exercising. First I went to a JustDance class. I was there for the first time. The class is well choreographed and is more technical and advanced than for example Zumba is. That for 1 h and then 20 min break and then a Sh'Bam45 class. The program that is used now is really good and plays songs that I are probably on the top 20 of my most listened songs on Spotify.

Came back home and started to do homework. Now to bed to try to finish a book for lit class and then waking up tomorrow early to continue studying. Tomorrow is also a short day. I called it language day, since I have 2 classes first Finnish Lit and then English Lang&Lit.

- Anniina  

Late morning, short school day and SUSHI!

Since I only have my HLs and TOK I have many free blocks at the moment. Today my classes started 13.15 and ended 14.30 so I only had Economics. I was supposed to study chemistry and history today morning before classes. That didn't happen. I was walking from our basement to the first floor and of course I fell and hit my shin (sääri suomeksi) and then the study morning changed to a chill morning with sitting down and having my leg up and watching movies. Never will have too long pyjama pants again.

The day ended with me and my mom making sushi! I really love making and eating it. This time we had salmon, surimi, scampi and salmon roe. Below are attached photos. The quality is bad once again since the pics are taken with my phone not camera. 

- Anniina

Normal weekly rhythm starting to appear.

Hi,

My life is starting to get more and more normal here. School resembles some what first year of RCN, of course there are differences. I am starting to remember names of people. I'm actually enjoying classes, yes even TOK is okay. But still so happy that only this week and next week and then no TOK until February.
Econ is the same usual boring revision of everything and English is okay as well as Finnish. Finnish is completely new. Now we are reading Memoirs of a Geisha.It's a really interesting book and a really recommend reading it. As an assignment I need to do a screen play of a scene from the movie. It's actually really fun to do.  Even though I had already a year of English it feels new, since all the material here is different.

Doing homework here isn't so bad as at RCN, since I don't have all of my friends within a 100 meter range here, so distractions are fewer. I do the homework and it doesn't feel horrible.

I sometimes get these moments when I miss RCN. It can be something really simple. Earlier this week I was walking down the corridor when leaving home and heard to Russian speakers talking. This made me miss the Haugland pool and Sauna, with Eastern Europeans talking in Russian, Serbo-Croatian etc. and me being the only person there who did not understand a single word.

Outside school I'm also starting to get a weekly rhythm. Mondays (every other) I go and do some volunteering with CP-disabled children, Tuesdays I go to the gym, Wednesdays I go to the gym or then just studying, Thursdays go to the Gym, Fridays leave to Kuusamo (to our cabin, if we are going there, otherwise a free day). Weekends are usually studying and depending on are we home or at Kuusamo something else.

Next week I'll be alone at home, since my parent's are going to Rome. Jealous! Especially since I have plane tickets from Oslo that I am not able to use. So I'll stay here and catch up with school work and go to classes etc.

RCNers HAVE AN AMAZING NOVEMBER BREAK!

- Anniina 

Food and Baking; A passion of mine

Food and Baking is something I really enjoy. I enjoy both eating and preparing food. If the working hours and wage would be better for chefs I probably would train myself to be a chef, but since it's not it's just going to be a hobby of mine. When I cook or bake, I usually don't think about anything else. It's one of the ways I relax and calm myself down if I am too intensely studying and need a break. Usually I make quite big portions so I can give out bread, buns, cake, pancakes... It's something I am probably better at than the average 18-year old student and I enjoy hearing complements on my cakes and bread.

Today I decided to make chicken soup for my family, so that we can eat the same thing for a couple days more. The recipe is super simple and the dumbest person ever could probably make it. I got the original recipe from a Finnish cook book, but I have altered it. This is usually how I make everything, get a recipe make it once according to it and then alter it to fit better with my tastes.

One really nice thing to have is a empty recipe book. Me and my mom got one from Hullut Päivät (Galna Dagar - a 5 day sale at Stockmann a department store), but it stayed unused until I left to Norway and started to collect nice recipes there. Now I have about 10 or 15 recipes there and more are coming almost weekly. A empty notebook works as well.

Now that I am home and have more options to cook food I will try to post some recipes and food related posts more. Also I will start to schedule posts that are on topics and not on my everyday life,so that when I have time I can write a lot and when I don't have time things will still be published. Posts in the future will be related to Finnish food (and how to make it), my pescotarianism, bread etc. It depends on what I am doing and eating at the moment.

- Anniina 

Life is getting back to normal!

SUOMENKIELINEN POSTAUS TULEE ALKUVIIKOSTA! / POST IN FINNISH COMES OUT BEGINNING OF NEXT WEEK!

To those of you who are my friends and/or are friends with me on Facebook this isn't new news; I have started school again. It's IB, the one from what I left to RCN. I kept all the subjects that I could and changed the others. I'm actually now happier about the combination of courses that I take than I was at RCN. I have:

Economics HL - same
English Language and Literature HL - same
Finnish A Literature HL - instead of Norwegian

Mathematics SL - same
History SL - instead of Global Politics
Chemistry SL - instead of E-systems

I really wanted to take History HL, but it wasn't offered. I was first wondering why, but then I figured out that SL has me included 4 students so that probably why...

At the moment I only have my HL classes and Theory of Knowledge. I have to take it again which sucks, especially when I don't have Edmund as my teacher anymore. Economics was super boring since we started from the very beginning with Demand. I know I have forgotten a lot of things from Econ, but I still do remember Demand and Supply. I class the teacher was asking questions and basically he said that I was answering them too complicatedly/ so that anyone else in the class except for him doesn't understand what I'm saying.

Finnish was nice, the group has about 15 students and all girls. We are studying Film and Literature so I have to read The memoirs of the Geisha in Finnish and then watch the film and the same for P.S I love you and The Great Gatsby. I have read P.S I love you and The Great Gatsby in English before so they should be quick.

For History I need to study before February The Arab Israeli Conflict in detail. And in Chemistry I need to study about 50 pages, mostly revision from before by the end of November. Also I have some few assignments to do, but their fairly small and easy.

So returning home has been much easier than I thought it would be. Next week is a break so I'll try to update a bit more on my life, maybe get my room renovated a bit and then post pictures of food and things I have baked.

- Anniina

P.S. We got the first snow earlier this week and it's white outside now. Those of you who know me know how happy this makes me! 

RCN I will miss you! / RCN, tulen kaipaamaan sinua!

As all of my co-years and first years already probably know I had to leave RCN for good. The decision was completely my own and related to physical and mental health issues. The decision was not affected by any people at RCN, maybe confirmed my choice after making the decision, but wasn’t a reason.

How my life will continue from now on is still a bit unclear... I will try to get into my previous school and if not there then to another Finnish high-school. Most likely I will graduate in a year or in a year and a half.

Even though academically last year was wasted otherwise being a year and few months at RCN has been the best year and few months of my life. I have made friendships that I know will last for life, I have grown as a human being extremely, I have learned new skills and most important of all; I have enjoyed my life. 

I know that I will miss RCN and probably at some point the IB as well, but I most likely will not regret my decision to leave. At the moment I cannot handle my anxiety attacks and all the catching up from last year with the normal stress of RCN there. I need a place where I can separate home and school, school and social life. A place where people are not complaining about the smallest things, a place where I have a support network to help me recover.

I will miss all of you amazing people there. Thank you for those of you who knew about my decision before leaving for respecting my privacy and not spreading rumours around. And to those of you who I didn’t tell before hand, don’t take it personally! I just wanted as few people as possible to know and told those who I knew could keep my wishes of privacy and give me the support I needed during the last few days.

I'll still keep updating my blog and the title is still relevant, since RCN became another home for me! 

Love Anniina

Noin viikon verran olen tiennyt, että aikani RCN:ssä on lopussa. Olin viime sunnuntaista taaksepäin 10 päivää kotona stressi/hermolomalla. Kaikki alkoi viime keväänä, jolloin annoin diabetekseni mennä todella huonoon kuntoon ja tästä johtuen huomasin syksyllä, että en muista melkein mitään parin kuukauden ajalta keväältä koulusta. Syksyn ajan olen kaiken normaalin RCN-stressin lisäksi saanut yrittää kiriä eri oppiaineita kiinni. Lopulta jouduin suureen henkiseen väsymykseen ja jatkuvan stressin tilaan. Lisäksi aloin saada ahdistuskohtauksia kun kohtasin vaikeuksia opiskeltaessa.

Tulin siihen tulokseen, että itselleni parasta tällä hetkellä on tulla takaisin Suomeen opiskelemaan. Tuntui aivan kamalalta sanoa hyvästi kaikille kavereille, kun ei ole varmuutta, että tulet enää koskaan näkemään heitä.

Tulevaisuuteni ja jatkosuunnitelmani eivät ole vielä täysin selvillä. Huomenna tai ensi viikolla, alan ottamaan yhteyttä paikkakuntani lukioihin ja kysellä, mistä mahdollisesti löytyisi opiskelu paikka. Yritän ensimmäiseksi päästä vanhaan lukiooni takaisin, sillä siellä tiedän jo kenen opettamistyyli sopii mulle ja kenen ei.

Minulla tulee varmasti olemaan suuri ikävä ja kaipuu takaisin koululle aina välillä, mutta tämä oli paras ratkaisu tällä hetkellä. Tuen silti suuresti UWC-arvoja ja koko ideaa ja kehotan ihmisiä hakemaan elämään UWC-elämää, se ei vaan sattuneista syistä passannut nytten minulle.

Aion silti jatkaa blogin päivittämistä ja nimikin pitää vielä paikkaansa, sillä RCN:stä tuli toinen koti minulle. 

-          Anniina 

Stress and more stress due to school

I feel like I am a horrible person complaining all the time about school, when I get to live here and it is completely voluntary. We have had a ton of school work to do lately and that's why I haven't posted in a long time. I have basically moved to the library and only come to my room to sleep. Unfortunately this cannot continue anymore, since my computers battery is not charging, so it needs to be plugged into a socket all the time and there is a shortage of sockets in the library. I know that sounds weird to say shortage instead of lack of, but I have been studying economics recently a lot to catch up with everything I forgot from last year and we have a huge test coming up this Friday. Now the stress should start to decrease for a moment since math IA first draft was due last night and I managed to send it in before the deadline. 

It's only a couple of weeks and we have some time off from classes, since October PBL is approaching. I already know what I am doing, since I will be leading a handicrafts PBL, where I'll be teaching knitting, felting etc. So excited for that since I have not had anytime to do any of that. After that it's less than a month and NOVEMBER BREAK and ROME! I'm traveling to Rome for 5 days and will meet up with my parent's there. I really need time off campus... I really like my room etc. but  need to get away from all the stress and factors causing it here for a while. 

We had the second year show sometime ago and I performed for the first time at RCN! It was just a small part in a traditional Maori dance, but still it was something! 

When taking photos of Leirskule kids in welcome group I need to introduce my name and the kids need to guess where am I from. I give them a clue by saying that I am from somewhere near, but I do not understand you. Every single time the kids guess first that I am from SWEDEN! Then RUSSIA! Then something else and after sometime someone is smart enough to think about Finland. 

I did a important decision this weekend and deactivated my Facebook. If I used to keep in contact with you through Facebook, send me a message or contact me in someway so that I can send you my email and Skype...

Now I need to rush to a meeting concerning economics group work! 

Enjoy your week, where ever you are!

Anniina 

NO ELECTRICITY! ALL TASKS DUE IN A WEEK! PANIC!

Today morning I woke up early for a weekend, around 7 a.m. Probs for half an hour tried to log on to Facebook and email etc. Then I noticed that my iPad wasn't charging, even though it was plugged to the charger that was plugged to a extension chord that was plugged to a socket, then I realize that we don't have any electricity... I look outside my window and Denmark house doesn't have any lights on either. I get worried. If the whole student village (especially Norway-house) has been out of electricity that can mean only one thing; NO ELECTRICITY for the WHOLE WEEKEND! I walked down to Kantina with my laptop and start to work with school stuff (Yes, me and Jenny still have our weekend let's sit, work and eat in the kantina for 5 hours- weekend mornings). I was doing my Global Politics IA (internal assessment) and needed to check one fact online. NONE of the WIFIs on Campus had internet. Everyone was is panic during breakfast since people have IAs and EEs to hand in tomorrow or in a week. All of the IAs I'm working on need to be handed in within the next 10 days, some of them I haven't even properly started... What means that next week I will just be working, going to classes and EACs. 

Luckily we got internet back around noon. Probably the Rektor woke up then and noticed that he has no Internet and called the IT-guys to come and fix it. For me to really get work done I need to wake up early and start to work straight away. Since this really didn't happen I started to design our room door. We have this room door decoration contest, so a lot of rooms do really nice decorations for their doors. Last year, my room had a colorful world map and we had our photos and names near our home countries. This year we are doing something different, but still nice. The competition ends tomorrow, so probs we won't have enough time to participate in it, but at least we will have a nice door. I'll post a pic when it's done. 

On Friday I went to Dale and bought a lot of food and baking equipment, I actually didn't spend that much money as I thought I would have. The reason for this massive shopping spree is that my Leirskule Media- activities changed. Granted I wanted to change them, but now I am taking photos of Welcome Group, when the Monday bus to Dale goes and during Fridays I normally have swimming EAC. This week the EAC was cancelled due to swimming tests for firsties. One of the cooking equipment I bought was a pie tray, and of course it was too large for the tiny ovens we have here at RCN. We had a Friday Cafe and they didn't need the proper oven so I go to bake my pie there. The leak pie I made was really good and not just according to me, a lot of people said that it was one of the best pies they have ever eaten. 

Since most of the firsties passed the swimming test yesterday, there were a lot of people today in the sauna. It was weird and nice at the same time. Last year there was a group of people  who were always in the sauna, mostly second years, some co-years. I really missed having Johanna, Karri, Marit (Estonia), Georgio (Belarus) etc. there. It wasn't the same.I had to defend the Finnish Sauna Culture alone. Most of the time the small upper bench was basically me and some crazy Eastern Europeans. At least people were not blaming the Finns this time for a too warm sauna. 

I can't remember did I mention of our last weeks Finnish Gathering, well tomorrow we are extending it by 4 other people and having a Finnic Gathering. So basically we have a gathering with the Estonians and Hungarians. I am planning on baking blueberry pie with a sweet bun base (pulla-taikina pohja). Before this during brunch me and Gong Pei ( a close friend of mine, from China) will be cooking and eating Asian food. I am so excited about this, since I miss our restaurant gatherings from last year with Marcella, Hana (Maldives), Evelina and Kornelia (Sweden), Pishun (Hong Kong/UK), Felipe (Mexico), Tim (Hong Kong) and some times Ray Nee (Singapore) and Astrid (Denmark) and Mais (Jordan). Everyone except for Tim and RayNee are my second years. 

Talking about second years, I skyped last week with Kelly and will skype Ange soon. Marcella sent me and some other people on Campus postcards... 

I can't remember and imagine how hard it is for all the firsties to learn 200 names, when they are not even used to all of these super complicated names. I have a hard time remembering/ distinguishing people from each other, while I have some 95 familiar faces around campus already. 

We started classes last Wednesday and I had all classes except for Econ, since the teacher was sick. I really enjoy all of my classes at the moment. My favorite class so far has been Norwegian, then Global Politics, then probably Math. In Norwegian my teacher changed and the new one is much better and I can understand everything that he says. I was super scared that I would have lost all of my Norwegian during the break since I have been listening and watching Swedish TV-programs. The opposite has happened I can actually understand and follow spoken Norwegian well. I am really excited, since hopefully in a month or so I can practice my Norwegian with my roommate. In Global Politics we started a new topic Peace & Conflict, which is basically what I am doing my EE on, so now I can actually contribute in class some way. Also I feel more confident in this new class... 

Hopefully next week will be great and I'll have time for something else as well as working all the time. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and next week, where ever you are! 

- anniina   

ps. Why couldn't writing 1000 words of academic essays be as easy as writing this blog post?

SUN & Flekke

As the title says we have had sunny weather today in Flekke. This is super weird, but so nice and distracting. Introweek has been awesome, mostly working time / relaxing time for us 2nd years, while firsties have all kind of rotations etc.

Since Media-group doesn't do anything in the rotations, I was put in Haugland Adventures. In Haugland Adventures we basically have games and through the games we take the students around the Campus. We all have different roles. I have been the Ambassador (easiest and shortest), someone is a pirate, one of us is a witch and one is a superhero. As the ambassador I basically run around campus being super weird and acting like a fool. Then we stop play a game and continue later on with other games. Remember that this is basically designed for 10-15 year old kids, visiting the campus for a week. Not for our firsties who are 16-18 (most of them) and with who we will spend the rest of our Flekke life here.

All of the firsties are really nice. I feel that I get along with them better then with my second years in the beginning. My room firsties are from Norway and Western Sahara. The second years in the room are from the Faroe Islands and Belarus. My personal firsties from Finland are both awesome, as well as the Ålandic girl. I am really waiting for our first gatherings here.

Today evening we will have Adviser social evening (hopefully with food). About food, I turned back to being a pescotarian, so I only eat vegetables and fish/ sea food. This has been a really good choice, since at least the vegetarian food is really good this year.

DROP is of course taking some of my free time here. I have also tried to work, but haven't accomplished that much. I heard that last year 18 students failed the IB from our school, that's like 20%. I sounds so strange, since all of them seemed to work hard with school work (or then I just happened to hang out with all of those people, who worked so much). This makes me scared, since I do not work that hard. Fingers crossed everything goes well.

Till the next post,

Anniina

Back in Norway and Oslo Day

My travel to Flekke started yesterday morning, when I woke up at 4 am Norwegian time. First flight from Oulu to Helsinki left at 9 am after what I spent a couple of hours at the airport tax free shopping. My flight was scheduled earlier then I thought, but luckily I noticed it early enough. A couple of hours on a plane where I am the only person speaking Finnish made me realize that my journey towards second year has really started. I was planning on going to the center of Oslo after arriving, but to my surprise there was no staff at the airport which meant that I couldn't leave my about 60 kilos of luggage with anyone and ended up staying there. Someone called the people responsible for Oslo Day and they told us that we'll be picked up around 8 pm. I waited at the airport for 10 hours. Luckily the time didn't feel so long since I saw a lot of my friends there and the rest at the school where we stayed the night. We had to sleep on the floor and I had a nice bump under my ribs since the electric chords needed to be covered.

Today morning we left from the school with Norwegian Alumni, my group with Miriam who graduated from AC two years ago. We walked all around Oslo, which was super nice. It was touristy, but not too touristy. I saw the area where Breivik's bomb exploded, the opera house, old factories, a park with a lot of statues went to a museum and had a great time in general. Now sitting on the bus on my way to Flekke! I have never been so excited to go back to Flekke.

- anniina 

Tampere & 2 days left

Last week I spent in Tampere working for a NGO called Naisten Pankki (women's bank). The week was really nice  and I returned home Sunday afternoon for my last week of summer. Now when writing this I have 2 days left before my return to Norway. Now that I have started packing everything once more and after realizing that I have some things already there I have started to realize that things will be different next year. They might be better or they might be worse, but they will be different. I won't have any of our restaurant gatherings happening in my room, I won't be waking Ange up every morning, Kelly won't be there talking while calculating math, I won't have the annoying upper bed in FH103... 

I know I will have 2 2nd year roommates, I know that two new firsties will live with me, I will have my awesome Finns there (even though Johanna and Karri won't be there), I know my house will stay the same, I know what subjects I am taking, I know when will my graduation be, I know when I end my exams, I know what EACs I'll have in the beginning of the beginning, I know the staff and half of the students... I know a lot of things!

I have my curtains there, I have my friends there, I have a normal daily rhythm there, I have my postcards there (A lot of post cards from family, that I got last year (mostly moomin))... 

I need to bring a lot of things I missed last year and that is my problem now, I probably have too much stuff leaving with me to RCN for the final year! One year of high school left, it feels so strange that I don't know where or what I am doing this time next year. I could be in university (probs not), I could be working at home and getting ready to start studying for uni law exams, I could be across the world volunteering somewhere, I could be working in Finland or doing something else! 

Waiting for Oslo day and return to RCN while I don't want to leave home and my vacation!

Anniina 

Hammerfest & Alta

Oltiin eilen hammerfestissa, joka oli tosi mukava paikka ja sieltä matka jatkui tänään Altaan, jossa käytiin katsomassa kalliotaidetta, Altan parasta (ja ainoaa) nähtävyyttä. Viimeinen yö Norjassa, huomenna takaisin Suomeen ja Kilpisjärvelle. Seuraava päivitys varmaan kotoa käsin jossain vaiheessa.

Ruoka on ollut todella hyvää ja eilen saatiin maistaa valaan lihaa, oli ihan kuin pihviä. Maisemat ovat vaihdelleet joka päivä todella paljon, mutta sää oon pysyn samanlaisena auringonpaisteena.

-Anniina 

Photos on Flickr // Kuvia Flickrissä

http://www.flickr.com/photos/farbutstillclosefromhome/

Day 3 & 4 / Karasjok & Kamøyvær

I didn't write here yesterday, since we were at a camping site, with no internet access. Yesterday morning we woke up in Finland, Saariselkä and went to sleep in Norway, Karasjok. During the day we visited a Sami museum Siida, a bears nest inside this huge rock and walked around in Karasjok. We also had our first photo stops, since the scenery changed a lot from the first day and it became amazing.

Then today we left from Karasjok and drove through Lakselv and Honningsvåg and visited Nordkapp. The drive up to Nordkapp was worth the while. The scenery just turned more and more amazing and breathtaking. Today we had so many photo stops, that I am regretting not bringing my USB chord for the camera with me. 

Then we came to Kamøyvær a super small fishing town (Yes, it's even smaller than Flekke and Haugland). The place is so idyllic. I wish we could stay here for a longer time, but tomorrow we are first visiting Honningsvåg and after that driving to Hammerfest. On the way to Hammerfest we will have to go again through a 7km tunnel that is under water. What is it with these Norwegians and their passion for tunnels. 

I'm really waiting for Hammerfest, since it is the biggest city I have visited since leaving from our cabin. Hopefully it would give me the chance to find a nice Norwegian sweater, that I really want. 

-Anniina 

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En kirjoitellut tänne eilen, sillä olimme leirintäalueella, ilman internet mahdollisuutta. Eilen aamulla heräsimme Suomessa, Saariselällä ja menimme nukkumaan Norjassa, Karasjoella. Päivän aikana vierailimme saamelaismuseo Siidassa, tafonin sisällä olevassa karhunpesässä ja kävelimme ympäriinsä Karasjoella. Meillä oli myös matkamme ensimmäiset valokuvaus pysähdykset, sillä maisemat muuttuivat paljon upeammiksi ensimmäisen päivän jälkeen. 

Tänään lähdimme Karasjoelta ja ajoimme Lakselvin ja Honninsvågin läpi ja kävimme Nordkappissa. Ajomatka Nordkappiin oli ajamisen arvoinen. Maisemat muutuivat aina vain upeammiksi ja henkeä salpaaviksi. Tänään meillä taas oli monen monta valokuvaus pysähdystä. Minua jo harmittaa, että en muistanut ottaa kameran USB-kaapelia mukaan, jotta olisin voinut siirtää kuvia koneelle. 

Sitten tulimme Kamøyværiin, tosi pieneen kalastaja-kylään (Kyllä, jopa pienenpään, kuin Flekke ja Haugland). Tämä paikka on todella idyllinen. Toivoisin, että voisimme olla täällä pidempään, mutta huomenna käymme ensin Honninsvågissa ja sen jälkeen ajetaan Hammerfestiin. Matkalla Hammerfestiin joudumme uudestaan menemään 7km pitkän vedenalaisen tunnelin läpi. Mikä intohimon kohde nämä tunnelit ovat norjalaisille. 

Odotan todella paljon Hammerfestia, sillä sen on suurin paikkakunta sitten sen jälkeen kun lähdin mökiltä. Toivottavasti se antaisi minulle edes mahdollisuuden löytää kiva norjalaisvillapaita, jonka todella haluan. 

- Anniina 

Day 2 / Saariselkä 2

So today we stayed here in Saariselkä and did a 10km day hike. We went to eat breakfast around 9 o'clock and fortunately the 5 buses of people have already eaten and left, so we had plenty of room and didn't need to queue anywhere. The breakfast was okay, at least it kept us full for a couple of hours.

After breakfast we started to walk towards our first stop point of the day. The distance was only less than 2 kilometers, but it was all uphill to Kaunispää (Fjäll/ Fjell/ a small mountain). At Kaunispää we had a stop at a restaurant/Cafe and also visited a souvenirs shop, where I bought 2 postcards to my corner in RCN. 

From Kaunispää the next 1-2 kilometers where downhill. It was also very fast and pleasant to walk. Our next stop was at a tipe-like hut (RCNers similiar to Lavvo). There we met a nice couple that were mountain biking. After we left from there the path continued to be very pleasant and easy to walk on. We thought that the trip would be more exhausting. Also we expected some rain and had all of our rain clothes packed with us, but luckily there was no rain. 

When we came back to the hotel, we left to the local supermarket Kuukkeli and bought the ingredients for today's food. We decided to make bacon-leek-tomato pasta. While being here at the apartment we have gone to the sauna and ate. Now we are waiting for a movie to begin in 30 min. 

Tomorrow after breakfast we will be heading more north. The plan is to visit Siida a Sami museum in Inari and after that drive to Utsjoki and cross the border there or at Karikasniemi to Norway. 

- Anniina 

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Tänään oltiin siis täällä Saariselällä ja käveltiin 10km päivävaellus. Mentiin aamulla 9 maissa syömään aamiasta ja onneksi 5 turistibussillista oli jo käynyt syömässä ja saatiin olla rauhassa, ilman jonottamista. Aamiainen oli okei, ainakaan ei tullut nälkä pariin tuntiin. 

Aamiasen jälkeen aloimme kävellä Kaunispään huippua kohti. Matkaa oli vajaa 2 kilsaa, mutta kaikki ylämäkeen. Kaunispäällä, pysähdyimme syömään munkit ja kävimme matkamuisto myymälässä. Sieltä ostin 2 postikorttia nurkkani seinälle. 

Seuraavat 2 kilometriä Kaunispäältä oli alamäkeä ja mukavaa käveltävää, leveällä polulla. Seuraava tauko oli kodalla, jossa tapasimme mukava pariskunnan, jotka olivat maastopyörillä liikenteessä. Tämän jälkeen takaisin tulo oli oikein leppoisaa ja helppokulkuista. Olimme yllättyneitä, kuinka kevyt reitti oli. Onneksemme sadevaatteita ei tarvinnut käyttää, jotka olimme pakanneet reppuihin mukaan. 

Tultuamme takaisin hotellille, lähdimme paikalliseen supermarkettiin Kuukkeliin ja ostimme ainekset pekoni-purjo-tomaatti pastaan. Oltuamme täällä hotellilla olemme käyneet saunassa ja syöneet. Nyt odottelemme elokuvan alkamista puolen tunnin päästä.

Huomenna aamiaisen jälkeen lähdemme kohti pohjoista. Suunnitelmana olisi tarkoitus vierailla saamelaismuseo Siidassa Inarissa ja sen jälkeen ajaa Utsjoelle, jonka jälkeen ylitetään raja joko siellä tai Karikasniemellä. 

- Anniina 

Road Trip Day 1 / Saariselkä

So today morning we started our Roadtrip in Kuusamo at our cottage. We drove through a lot of different places and visited a gold museum in Tankavaara. Just outside the museum area the Finnish national gold panning championships where held. We got to visit and see one round of that. Even though I don't understand the sport that much, I could say that it was fairly interesting and surprisingly fast. The average age was well over 50 closer to 60.

At the moment in Saariselkä I am as north as I have ever been in my life. Today we drove through Kuusamo, Posio, Salla, Kemijärvi, Pelkosenniemi, Sodankylä and arrived here in Saariselkä (officially a part of Inari).

This is already the area where the Sami people live. I find it extremely interesting that everything here is written in at least 2 different languages. Well actually that isn't so interesting, since in Oulu everything is written mostly in 2 languages Finnish and Swedish. Here everything is written in one of the Sami languages and Finnish. The Sami words sound so different and you can't guess anything from them.

Tomorrow we will stay here and go for a day hike. Our goal is Kaunispää (Fjäll/Fjell/small mountain) and some other paths after that. After tomorrow we will continue our journey to Norway. Can't Wait!

Some pictures after the translation of this to Finnish. Bad quality I know, taken with my phone. Better ones will come some point after the trip. The first 3 are pictures of the 2 basses that I got in Kuusamo last week.

P.S. I can't believe that it's less than a month and I am back at RCN! I already miss the smell of Finland House and everything that makes our Flekke-bubble Flekke Bubble.

- Anniina
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Tänään aamulla lähdettiin automatkallemme Kuusamosta, mökiltä. Ajoimme monien paikkakuntien läpi ja vierailimem Tankavaaran kultamuseossa. Aivan museo alueen ulkopuolella oli kullanhuuhdonnan SM-kisat menossa, joten kävimme katsastamassa myös ne. Katsoimme yhden erän ja vaikka en ymmärtänyt lajista hölkäsen pöläystä, voin sanoa, että se oli melko mielenkiintoista. Keski-ikä lähenteli varmaan 60 osallistujien joukossa.

Tällä hetkellä ollaan Saariselällä, pohjoisimmassa paikassa, jossa olen koskaan ollut. Tänään ajoimme siis Kuusamon, Posion, Sallan, Kemijärven, Pelkosenniemen, Sodankylän kautta ja saavuttiin tänne Saariselälle/Inariin.

Tämähän on jo saamelaisten asuinmaata ja mielestäni on todella mielenkiintoista huomata kaikki kyltit molemmilla kielillä ja huomata kuinka en pysty ollenkaan arvaamaan mitä saamenkielisissä kylteissä sanotaan, katsomatta suomenkielisiä tekstejä.

Huomenna jäämme tänne ja aiomme valloittaa Kaunispää-tunturin ja sen jälkeen kävellä eri reittejä ympäristössä. Ylihuomenna jatkamme matkaa Norjan puolelle.

Ja sama suomeksi!

Tässä siis suomenkielinen versio eilisistä sepustuksista, joita tänne kirjoittelin.

Olen pääasiassa kirjoitellut tänne enemmän ja enemmän vain suomeksi, sillä pelkään mitä suomen kielen taidoilleni käy. Alussa kirjoitin enemmän englanniksi, sillä halusin parantaa englannin taitojani, mutta nyt tunnen olevani todella varma englannin kanssa. Suomen kielen taitoni on alkanut suorastaan pelottaa. Tänne tullessa olin varma, että en tule enää koskaan opiskelemaan Suomessa, mutta nyt olen suunnittelemassa hakemista Suomeen opiskelemaan oikeustieteelliseen. Ajatus suomeksi opiskelemisesta pelottaa hieman kahden/ kolmen vuoden jälkeen. Tänne tullessa jouduin miettimään miten sanoa jokin asia englanniksi, nyt asetelma on kääntynyt toisinpäin ja joudun miettimään miten sanoa jotain suomeksi. Kirjakielen käyttö tuntuu aivan kamalalta idealta, koska käytän täällä vain puhekieltä. Varsinkin yleispuhekieltä enemmän ja enemmän, sillä olen ainoa Pohjois-Suomesta oleva suomalainen ja sama tilanne on ensi vuonnakin. Ria, toinen suomalainen täällä, tulee Kotkasta, jossa murre ja puhetyyli on aivan toisenlainen. Ykköseni tulevat Helsingistä ja Turusta, joten murteet tulevat olemaan todella erilaisia. Turun murteeseen on hyvä alkaa tottutelemaan, sillä se on yksi mahdollisista tulevista opiskelupaikkakunnistani. 

Nyt kun kakkoset ovat lähteneet muutama viikko sitten pois, saattaa olla päiviä, jolloin en käytä suomea ollenkaan. Joskus saatan vain sanoa hei Rialle tai sitten lähettää 2 sähköpostia äidilleni. Syystä, että kukaan muu ei puhu samaa muretta se on heikentynyt hurjasti, mutta tähän tulee kohta muutos, sillä loma alkaa kohta ja pääsen kotia. 

KOTI? Mikä on koti minulle? Missä se sijaitsee? Tunnen itseni äärettömän onnelliseksi, että voin rehellisesti sanoa, että minulla on kaksi kotia. Molemmat sijaitsevat pohjoismaissa, mutta eroavaisuudet ovat suuret. Koti on Norja, Flekke, Suomi-talo, Suomi-talo103. Tämä on kotini, huoneeni, nurkkani, jossa istun ja kirjoitan teille. Mutta KOTI on Suomessa, Oulussa, siellä missä porot melkein asuvat(kämppikseni mukaan), Raivaajantie, jossa vanhempani ovat, jossa olen kasvanut ja elänyt 15 vuotta melkein 18:sta vuodesta. Se on KOTINI. 

Vajaan viikon päästä olen kotona. Kaikki sanovat minulle, kuinka onnekas olen sillä Suomeen matkustaminen on niin helppoa. Todellisuus on, että minulla matkustaminen koululta kotia kestää 25 tuntia. Ensi bussilla, sitten junalla, lentämällä, lentämällä ja autolla. Kello 20.20 lauantai-iltana on kun ajattelen olevani melkein kotona. KOTONA olen, kun avaan se puisen oven, jonka vieressä on harmaa postilaatikko. Kun avaan oven ja näen harmahtavat kaakelit ja valkoisen oven. Kun avaan valkoisen oven, jossa on ikkuna ja oikealla puolellani on portaat ylä- ja alakertaan ja vasemmalla on olohuone ja edessäni on keittiö.

Ennen tänne tuloa ajattelin, että lempipaikkani KOTONA on kellari. Siellä on kotiteatterisysteemit, pianoni, sauna ja kylpyhuone. Siellä vietin ennen eniten aikaa. Tämä on muuttunut sillä aikaa kun olen ollut täällä. Eniten kaipaan omaa huonettani, sitä sotkuista pientä huonetta, jossa on oma sänkyni, ihan oma tilani, jota ei tarvitse jakaa muiden kanssa. Toisekseen kaipaan keittiötä älyttömästi. Voin vain kävellä sinne ja tiedän missä kaikki on, eikä minun tarvitse juosta talosta taloon etsimään pannua ja kattilaa. 6 yötä ja nukun omassa sängyssäni.

Jatkoa tulee lisää myöhemmin.

Anniina

Something in English / Jotain Englanniksi

I know I should update this blog more often in English. In the beginning I did write more often in English, because I felt that I should improve my English, but now the situation is turned around. I don't study Finnish here at all so and when I write emails or chat on Facebook, my Finnish is spoken Finnish. I'm starting to lose my standard language and using more and more my dialect, that is getting weaker. This kind of frightens me, since I am applying back to Finland after next year to study law after three years of studying in English mostly and mostly communicating in English.

Now that our second years have left Campus (1 ½ weeks already without them) there might be days when I don't communicate in any way in Finnish. Some days I say just Hi to my co-year or then send 2 emails to my mom. Since I am the only one here from Northern-Finland during this year my dialect has toned done, but I am sure I will have it back as soon as I have stayed home for a couple of weeks.

HOME? What is home for me? I feel I am extremely lucky since I can truly say that I have two homes. They are located both in the Nordic region, but the differences are huge. Home is Norway, Flekke, Finland House, FH103. This is my home, my room, my corner where I am sitting now and writing to you.  But HOME is in Finland, Oulu, almost where the reindeer live (according to my roommate), Raivaajantie, where my parents are, where I have been raised 15 years out of almost 18 years. That is the real HOME.
In less then a week I will be home after travelling for 25 hours. Everyone is telling me how easy it is to travel to Finland and how I am so lucky. Well to be honest there are people here, who will on the other side of the world and still will be home earlier or at the same time as I will be. I leave at 6 p.m. local time from the school on Friday evening and reach Oulu Airport at 19.20 (norwegian Time) / 20.20 (Finnish Time). This is when I consider being almost home. HOME will be when I get to open that wooden door that has a grey mailbox next to it. When I open the door and see the tiles and white cupboards and the white door with a window on it. When I open that door and walk inside and see on my right stairs going down and stairs going down on my left I can see our living room with a blue sofa and 2 blue chair and ahead of me is the kitchen.

Before coming here I thought that I would miss most our basement. I spent most of my time there, it's where we have a projector and TV, DVD etc. systems. It's where my piano is. It's where the sauna and bathtub and one shower is. This was proven false during the year. The places that I miss the most are our kitchen and my own room. Kitchen, because I like the fact that at home I could go to the kitchen and if I wanted to cook I had all the utensils there and wouldn't need to run from house to house looking for pots and pans. My own room, because it's my space, it's my own bed. That's where I will be sleeping in 7 nights.

I will only sleep there for a couple of nights since then I am heading off to Helsinki and Järvenpää for UWC-things on Monday. On Monday afternoon I will attend a event at the Norwegian Embassy in Helsinki, with members of the administration of my school, the Board of the school  (in what Jenny (USA roommate) is a part of), members of the Finnish National Committee and UWCRCN alumni. After this meeting I will be staying with my dad's aunt in the center of Helsinki and be spending time with my friends that I rarely get to see,due to the distance from Oulu to Helsinki. On Friday the Finnish UWC Summer gathering will start. I am very curious to see what actually happens there, since I have only heard stories about it. It is compulsory for all the new students to attend, but last year I left to Nepal on the same day so I was excused.

This was supposed to be very short, but I got carried away. Hopefully you found this interesting. I'll probably  continue posting more often in English during the Summer.

- Anniina

P.S. As I was talking about homes, here is something some students wrote about their homes. 

Paras viikonloppu melkein takana

 Meillä on täällä ollut pitkä viikonloppu, sillä perjantaina oli Syttande mai (17.5) Norjan kansallispäivä. Sitten oikea viikonloppu ja tänään oli vielä E-systemsin tutkimusretki yhdelle läheiselle rannikolle. Syttande mai on siis Norjan kansallispäivä ja silloin he juhlivat perustuslakia. Hieman historiaa tähän väliin! Norjan perustuslaki perustettiin 1814, eli ensi vuonna juhlallisuudet ovat varmaan omaa luokkaansa sillä silloin norjalaiset juhlivat 200 vuotista perustuslakia. Norja on valtiona kuitenkin melkein yhtä vanha kuin Suomi, sillä Norjan valtio itsenäistyi 1905. Maanantaina (viikko sitten 13.5) Norjan entinen pääministeri Kåre Willoch kävi koulullamme antamassa luennon Norjan historiasta ja kehityksestä viikinkiajoilta nykyiseen hyvinvointivaltioon. Hän vieraili koulullamme sillä hänen pojanpoikansa on ykkönen täällä. Koulun johdon kuullessa hänen vierailustaan, he halusivat hänen antavan luennon. Aihe oli mielestäni huono, sillä yksi Norjan tunnetuimmista politiikoista olisi varmasti voinut antaa paljon paremman ja mielenkiintoisemman luennon.

Viime viikolla meillä oli vain yksi päivä koulua ja tällä viikolla on vain huomenna ja keskiviikkona tunteja. Torstaina kakkosilla on Graduation ja silloin joudumme hyvästelemään heidät lopullisesti. Olen varma, että osaan tulen olemaan yhteydessä ja tapaamaan heidät vielä tulevaisuudessa, mutta osan lähtemisestä olen melkein iloinen. Uskallan sanoa tämän täällä, sen takia, että kyseiset ihmiset, eivät lue blogiani (toivottavasti).

17.5 juhlinnat riippuvat paikkakunnasta. Oleinen osa juhlintaa on barnetoget og folktoget (Lapsi- ja ihmiskulkueet). Isoissa kaupungeissa on suuret laumat, ihmisiä katsomassa kyseisiä kulkueita ja pienissä kylissä taas (kuten Flekkessä) kaikki ovat osa kulkuetta, eikä kukaan ole katselemassa. Kulkue päättyi Flekke Ungdomshus (Nuorisotalo), jossa oli puheita, laulettiin Ja, vi elsker dette landet, joka on Norjan kansallislaulu ja joitakin esityksiä. Tämän jälkeen ohjelma siirtyi paikalliselle koululle, johon en jaksanut enään osallistua, joten lähdin kävelemään takaisin koululle päin.

Illalla lähdin Astridin (Tanska), Marcella (Hong Kong) ja Mais (Jordania) kanssa Lavvolle. Lavvo on kota, johon mahtuu noin 10 ihmistä enintään. Matka kestäisi kävellen noin puolesta tunnista tuntiin, mutta kanooteilla matka kesti vain vajaat 20 min. Lavvolla, oli aivan mahtavaa viettää aikaa ihmisten kanssa joidenka kanssa tulen hyvin toimeen. Kultiin todennäköisesti susia ja kettuja ja päädyttiin soittamaan IB-koordinaattorillemme, että onhan siellä varmasti turvallista. Hänen vastauksensa oli, että nukkukaa hyvin ja nauttikaa muiden kuin ihmisten äänistä.

Lauantaina tultiin takaisin kampukselle ja menin nukkumaan joskus 10 maissa aamulla ja heräsin puoli kolmelta. Menin ulos, sillä täällä oli helle (20 + astetta). Katsoin jääkiekkoa, menin takaisin sisälle, sillä minulla oli vuoro Student Shopissa (kioski, jossa myydään oppilaille suklaata, sipsejä, shampoota yms.). Tämän jälkeen menin takaisin ulos ja hyppäsin vuonoon ensimmäisen kerran tänä vuonna. Vuonoon hypyn jälkeen menin kävelelly Jennyn kanssa ja sen jälkeen katsomaan Euroviisuja Auditoriumiin. Euroviisuista ihan vaan sen verran, että tykkäsin todella siitä Tanskan voittokappaleesta.

Sunnuntaina heräsin kohtuu ajoissa ja menin lukemaan kirjaan aurinkoon muutamaksi tunniksi, sen jälkeen menin Jennyn ja Kellyn kanssa noidan talolle (kampuksella oleva raunio) ja opettajien salaiselle rannalle. Luin kirjaa taas vähän aikaa ja sen jälkeen menin Davidin (mun advisor/ryhmänohjaaja) luokse grillausillallista varten. Sieltä menin Juditin luokse (mun housementor / talovanhempi) suunnittelemaan, mitä tehdään uusille ykkösille, sitten kun he saapuvat kampukselle Elokuussa. David oli kerrankin hyvällä tuulella ja hyvän sään ansiosta minä, Jenny ja Jakob (Tanska) pääsimme hänen veneellä Daleen katsomaan rakenteilla olevaa siltaa. Meidän lisäksi ryhmästämme ei löytynyt muita, joilla oli illalla aikaa, joten Elio (Albania) pääsi kanssa mukaamme.

Kun saavuttiin takaisin tuolta reissulta kymmenen maissa illalla oli vielä todella lämmintä ja menin Kellyn, Jennyn, Alberton (Espanja), Aishan (Norja) ja Rikken (Norja) kanssa nuotiopaikalle ja meillä oli siellä makkaroita ja vaahtokarkkeja, joita me paahdettiin. Vietin heidän kanssa pari tuntia ja sen jälkeen oli aika suunnata nukkumaan, sillä tänään oli se E-systemsin retki. Paikka oli tosi kaunis ja paahtavan kuuma. Minähän onnistuin polttamaan itseni siellä.

Nyt meillä alkaa viimein housemeeting, jossa kakkoset ovat paikalla. Laitan tänään tai huomenna yhden postauksen täynnä kuvia.


- Anniina

PS. Enää 19 päivää loman alkuun ja siihen, että olen Suomessa!

Kokeet ovat täällä!

2/6 tehtynä!

Takana on siis Global Politicsin ja Matikan kokeet. Eka tuntui menevän todella hyvin, toinen ei niin hyvin, mutta uskon että pääsin sen läpi. Huomenna vuorossa E-systems ja sitten 3:n päivän viikonloppu ja sitten tiistaina enkku ja heti perään ekonomia. Keskiviikkona sitten vuorossa on norja ja sen jälkeen torstaina vuorossa on E-systemsin labra rannalla ja perjantaina on 17.5. 17.5 on Norjan kansallispäivä! Täällähän ollaan todella isänmaallisia. 

Eilen saatiin kokea jotain todella ihmeellistä, +20 astetta ja auringonpaistetta. Eilinen menikin siis opiskellessa matikkaa ulkona. 

Nyt vielä lukemaan E-systemsiä ja sitten nukkumaan ja aamulla aikainen herätys lukemaan ja sitten 8-10 istua kaksi tuntia kokeessa.

Kokeet ovat lähestymässä!

Olen saanut kuulla jo muutaman kerran eri ihmisiltä, että tännekin voisi päivitellä kuulumisia. No nytten pidän pienen opiskelu tauon ja päivittelen tännekin mitä elämässäni kuuluu. Viimeisen kerran olen siis vissiin kirjoitellut Oslon lentokentältä ennen pääsiäistä sen jälkeen olen ehtinyt olla flunssassa/kuumeessa pääsiäisenä ja sen jälkeen.

Leirskule on ehtinyt alkamaan meille ykkösille. Leirskule on käytännössä leirikoulu ja norjalaiset koulut saavat valtiolta tukea siihen osallistumiseen. Meillä on täällä toiminnassa yksi monista rekisteröidyistä Leirskuleista, elikkä meille tulee joka viikko uusi ryhmä lapsia. Joskus lapset/nuoret ovat samalta luokalta ja toisinaan (kuten tällä viikolla) he tulevat useammasta koulusta. Jokaisen ykkösen ja ensi vuoden alussa kakkosen pitää osallistua Leirskule ohjelmien järjestämiseen kerran viikossa. Vaihtoehtoja on monia: kajakointia, jousiammuntaa, kiipeilyä, kansainvälisiä aktiviteetteja, köysillä tasapainoilua, seikkailuratoja yms. Itselläni on yksi helpoimmista, mutta myös toisinaan erittäin haastava Media-ryhmä. Eli käyn ottamassa aina köysistä ja kansainvälisistä aktiviteeteistä. Joka viikko pitää antaa 10 kuvaa molemmista, joka ei ole haastavaa. Tietenkään kaikki kuvat eivät ole loistavia, mutta huonoja kuvia en ole vielä joutunut antamaan.

Leirskulen myötä myös harrastukset on muuttuneet. DROP tietenkin pysyy minulla, siihen asti, että valmistun. Uinnissa jatkan myös, vaikka olenkin tällä hetkellä ainut siellä joka oikeasti osaa uida ja haluaa vain parantaa tekniikkaa ja urheilla, sillai että saa CAS-tunteja Uusista harrastuksista toinenkin liittyy uintiin, nimittäin olen mukana ohjaamassa Parapoolia. Parapool on tarkoitettu vammaisille (kehitys ja cp) Dalesta ja ympäristöstä. Periaatteessa ainut asia, jota mun täytyy tehdä siellä on saada heitä liikkumaan. Osalla osallistujista on avustaja mukana, joka helpoittaa tehtävääni paljon. Kanssani siellä on yleensä ruotsalainen Stina ja norjalainen Juni, joten kielimuuriakaan ei yleensä ole. Ruotsin ja Norjan yhdistelmää tulee käytettyä melko paljon. Tälle termille en ottanut kuin kolme harrastusta, sillä stressiä saattaa alkaa ilmetä ensi termillä IA ja EE  kirjainlyhenteiden takia.

Earth Weekend ja ei Internettiä. Viime viikonloppuna meillä oli Earth Weekend ja paljon erilaisia tapahtumia, jotka liittyy ympäristöön. Yksi tapahtumista oli sähkötön kahvila. Kahvilan ajaksi Student Villagesta (oppilaskylä) otettiin sähköt pois. Samalla meiltä meni Internet launtai-iltana 21 maissa pois päältä ja se saatiin takaisin vasta maanantai aamuna. Oli kyllä varmaan yksi tehokkaimmista opiskelupäivistä koko aikana täällä, sillä ei ollut mitän häiriötekijöitä kuten Facebook. Tällöin päätinkin, että aina opiskellessa mulla on Facebook chat pois päältä. 

Käveleminen Dalesta koululle (13 km). Samaisen viikonlopun perjantaina liftasin Marcellan kanssa Daleen ja kaikki sujui loistavasti paluumatkaan asti. Jouduimme kävelemään koko matkan takaisin Dalesta koululle ja se on semmoiset 13-14 km. Jaloissa tuntui illalla ja seuraavana aamuna ja yksi rakko tuli, mutta kiitos äidin yhdessä aiemmassa paketissa oli tullut rakkolaastareita,

Opiskelua ja Opiskelua. Ensimmäisen vuoden kokeet alkavat 8.5 ja IB:n loppukokeet ylihuomenna. Kaikki kampuksella opiskelee hulluna tällä hetkellä. Itse olen käytännössä muuttanut E-systemsin luokkaan viikonloppuisin ja tulen aina vaan nukkumaan huoneeseen. Jos on hakemassa USAhan niin silloin näilä arvosanoilla on oikeasti paljon merkitystä, mutta itse olen palaamassa Suomeen oikikseen tai valtiotieteelliseen, joten vain loppuarvosanoilla on väliä. Silti haluan saada mahdollisimman hyvät arvosanat ja opiskelen todella paljon. Silti haluan pitää normaalin unirytmin, normaalin suomalaisen unirytmin, en normaalia UWC unirytmiä, joten yritän aina mennä nukkumaan 22 ja 23.30 välillä ja herätä 6.30 ja 7.00 välillä. Muutamana aamuna olen oikeastaan herännyt aikaisemmin jo 5 maissa ja työskennellyt aamulla. 

Nordic Council kokous ja suomalaisia paljon kampuksella. Meille on tänään saapunut 5 suomalaista kampukselle. Nordic Council kokousta varten. Council on se, joka käytännössä johtaa tätä koulua. Councilissa on kaksi suomalaisjäsentä, Pär Stenbäck toimii councilin puheenjohtajana ja Christina Fraser on edustamassa Svenska Kulturfondenia. Lisäksi meillä on täällä suomalainen board member ja 2 suomalaista edustamassa UWC Suomea. Tänään juttelin päivällisen aikana Pär Stenbäckin kanssa ja aikaisemmin päivällä vietin monta tuntia toisen UWC Suomen edustajan kanssa. Huomenna tulen kuitenkin tapaamaan kaikki, sillä kaikilla pohjoismaisila on tapaamiset kansallisten komiteoiden kanssa ja Council jäsenten kanssa omasta maasta. 

Nyt alkaa olla jo uniaika, yritän kirjoitella edes kerran viikossa. Todennäköisesti viikonloppuisin.